Liner notes:

The year is 1967. Winter, Ulster County in upstate New York, about a two-hour drive from Manhattan. Bob Dylan, recovering from a motorcycle accident, has moved his family up to Byrdcliffe, New York, where he is editing a film about his 1966 tour. He invites a few members of his touring group (formerly known as The Hawks – soon to be known as The Band) to come help out. Rick Danko, Richard Manuel and Garth Hudson move into a house on 100 acres, which they dub “Big Pink.” Guitarist Robbie Robertson joins them, also moving nearby. The nascent Band, still on retainer from Dylan’s cancelled tour, begins recording a series of demos with Dylan, first at his house in a den dubbed “The Red Room” and then later that spring in the basement of the big pink house.

Between March and September, Garth Hudson is pressed into action and records nine reels of tape full of new songs – originals, country, folk and rockabilly classics as well as song sketches that will never be completed. For the next year they return to the basement regularly to record - adding and subtracting, refining and discarding. Eventually, former Hawk Levon Helm joins them and adds some distinctive drumming and singing on some final tracks. Although a lot of music is recorded, none of it is planned for new Dylan releases. His real focus is on creating demos to hand over to his music publishing company so that other artists can record the songs. In the process, the tapes keep running and more reels are recorded – warm-ups and jam sessions never meant to see the light of day.

Hudson edits together a 14 song tape which is couriered to Dylan’s publisher. Cover versions come immediately: Peter, Paul & Mary; Ian & Sylvia; Manfred Mann; Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger; The Byrds – all within the first six months. What Dylan doesn’t imagine is that all these songs create a public demand to hear the originals.

As early as 1968, fans clamor for their release. Jann Wenner echoes their sentiments in a front-page article in Rolling Stone. By 1969, the first bootleg of the modern rock’n’roll age appears, called Great White Wonder; an album compiling selections from the basement recordings as well as tracks that had slipped through the net of Dylan’s career thus far. More bootlegs follow. An underground industry forms around them.

Eventually, in 1975, Dylan and The Band cede to demand and release an official Basement Tapes album. Robbie Robertson, along with engineer Rob Fraboni, takes the lead. They collapse Hudson’s original 1967 wide-pan stereo recordings into mono and add additional instrumentation and vocals recorded by The Band in an attempt to make the recordings sound more like a finished product. In the end they revamp 16 songs and record 8 new ones without Dylan.

The record is an instant success, topping the charts at number one. But in some ways, this only whets the appetite among a large group of Dylan fans that want to hear everything recorded in that basement. A controversy arises over what the real basement tapes actually are. Is it the released album? Are there hidden reels? Exactly what do the original recordings sound like? Even more volumes of bootlegs are released. Now, 47 years later, those questions can be answered.

The Basement Tapes Raw represents the best of these recordings. For those interested in going deeper there is the deluxe edition, The Basement Tapes: Complete, which represents every recording that could be salvaged including a number recently discovered from the so-called “Red Room” recordings. Why release them now? A lot of the credit has to go to Canadian music archivist and producer, Jan Haust. Jan’s close friendship with Garth Hudson enabled him to rescue these deteriorating tapes and take on the daunting task of restoring them as they are presented here.

Everything possible has been done to present the original tapes as they sounded in that basement, so many years ago. The aim was not to make “records,” which Robbie Robertson did so beautifully on the 1975 Columbia Records release, but to accurately represent the music that was captured by Garth Hudson on a reel-to-reel tape recorder during the summer of 1967. We hope you keep this in mind while listening to these sometimes rough, sometimes distorted, but always fascinating verité recordings.

CD 1:

1. Edge of the Ocean
(Bob Dylan)

One of the first things recorded in the “red room.” You can tell that Garth Hudson is experimenting with the rudimentary recording equipment at hand, in that the first sound heard on the tape is Dylan requesting a playback. Many of the early songs recorded in the “red room” have fluctuating degrees of distortion as well as an odd instrumentation mix consisting of electric piano and tambourine. In the early recordings, both the tambourine and the electric piano are feeding through the vocal mic, creating distortion.

2. My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It
(Clarence Williams)

Legend has it that “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It” was written at the turn of the 20th century by New Orleans trumpet legend Buddy Bolden. This version is credited to bandleader, songwriter and music publisher Clarence Williams. Apparently an early synthesis of a number of traditional songs, including “Midnight Special” and “Keep A-Knockin’,” “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It” reached number 4 on the Country Charts when Hank Williams released it as a single in 1949. After that, the song became sort of a ground zero for early rock and rollers with many rockabilly versions juicing up the Hank Williams chart hit.

3. Roll on Train
(Bob Dylan)

Another Dylan original from the “red room” that never quite became a song. It’s a modal blues that doesn’t change chords, calling to mind the Muddy Waters’ classic, “Still a Fool (Two Trains Running).” By this point, Dylan and Robbie Robertson had been playing together for over two years and had developed a form of musical ESP. Bob picks up a fragment of a melody, emphasizes a rhythm and Robbie is right there with a series of complementary riffs.

4. Mr. Blue
(Dewayne Blackwell)

A number one hit for The Fleetwoods in 1959 – a scant eight years before the boys in the basement recorded this version, remembering only the chorus. Originally written by Dewayne Blackwell for The Platters, the song spawned many cover versions once The Fleetwoods topped the charts with it. Songwriter Blackwell struck country chart gold again 31 years later when he co-wrote “Friends in Low Places,” Garth Brooks’ break out single. Garth himself would record “Mr. Blue” on his second album, No Fences. Fans of both songs should check out Dewayne’s 1980s country hit for Dave Frizzell, “I’m Gonna Hire a Wino to Decorate Our Home.”

5. Belshazzar
(Johnny Cash)

A biblical song written by Johnny Cash, recorded for the Sun Records label in 1957. Cash and Dylan’s friendship dates back to the release of Dylan’s Freewheelin’ album. After hearing the album backstage at one of his shows, Cash was moved to write Dylan a note congratulating him on being “the best country singer I’ve heard in years.” Dylan wrote back immediately, telling Johnny he’d been a fan since “I Walk the Line.” They met for the first time at The Gaslight Café back in 1963 and remained friends throughout the years.

6. I Forgot to Remember to Forget
(Stan Kesler, Charlie Feathers)

Written by Stan Kesler and rockabilly singer, Charlie Feathers, this was Elvis Presley’s first number one hit on the country charts, establishing Presley’s lifelong credentials as a crossover pop and country artist. The “B” side, “Mystery Train” also was a top country hit, reaching number 11. Interestingly enough, some of the first tracks recorded in the “red room” were original Dylan works in progress. As they became more comfortable with the recording process, the group unleashed an onslaught of genre spanning cover songs, including rhythm and blues, rock and roll, traditional, folk and country. On this track, along with “Belshazzar,” you can hear the “basement tape” sound falling together.

7. You Win Again
(Hank Williams)

Another classic from the Hank Williams song book, “You Win Again,” reached number 10 on the C&W jukebox charts in 1962. The guys in the band really don’t have a fix on the song, so the propulsive rhythm is provided by Dylan’s forceful guitar strumming. Dylan began his career playing solo acoustic guitar with an unerring sense of rhythm. Time and time again on the basement tapes you can hear Dylan leading the way on a 6 or 12 string guitar.

8. Still in Town
(Harlan Howard, Hank Cochran)

Johnny Cash’s influence bounces off the basement walls again on this song first released on Johnny’s I Walk the Line album on Columbia Records in 1964. The song was written by two of country music’s greatest songwriters, Harlan Howard and Hank Cochran, who also had collaborated on Patsy Cline’s 1960 hit, “I Fall to Pieces.” On his own, Hank Cochran also wrote such hits as “She’s Got You,” “Make the World Go Away,” and “A Little Bitty Tear.” Harlan was no slouch either, penning country standards like “Heartaches by the Number,” “Busted,” and “Tiger by the Tail,” which he co-wrote with Buck Owens.

9. Waltzing with Sin
(Red Hayes, Sonny Burns)

Bob Dylan’s extensive knowledge of country music’s ins and outs is still on display with this relatively obscure gem written by Red Hayes and Sonny Burns. On many of the basement tapes, it’s obvious that Dylan is attracted to a melody or a chorus but doesn’t know the words to the song. He’s intimately familiar with “Waltzing with Sin” and gives it an impressive reading. He obviously wants to get this one down right, because after about two minutes, he suggests they try another take, but the band keeps rolling along and Dylan keeps singing.

10 & 11. Big River (Take 1 and Take 2)
(Johnny Cash)

It’s impossible to really know what the purpose of many of these recordings was. Were they just to test the equipment before it was time to make publishing demos? Were they warm-up arrangements for some series of gigs, never played and long forgotten? What is clear is that in many cases, they are trying to arrive at a coherent arrangement and recording of the song. They start out Johnny Cash’s “Big River” in the wrong key, hence this fragment on Take 1. By the second take they’ve added a distinctive rhythmic feel and Dylan lays into the lyrics with a confident and powerful vocal performance.

12. Folsom Prison Blues
(Johnny Cash)

The last one of Johnny Cash’s songs recorded for the basement tapes. By this point, Hudson has gotten the sound together and the band knows the song well enough to add harmony vocals and stop time. They expand on “Big River”’s rocking feel by digging deep into an R&B groove. It’s interesting to note that two of rock and roll’s most influential performers made many of their landmark recordings without a drummer. Hank Williams never used one and Johnny Cash didn’t add a drummer until at least 1960, well after he was a household name. That both make a strong showing in Dylan’s early repertoire is no accident.

13. Bells of Rhymney
(Idris Davies, Peter Seeger)

There are all sorts of connections with this song and Bob Dylan. Written by Pete Seeger based on a poem by Welsh poet Idris Davies about a coal mining disaster in Wales, this politically provocative song was first released on a Pete Seeger live album in 1958. Along with Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger was one of the most influential of the politically based singer-songwriters. His long and impressive career included stints with seminal folk groups The Weavers and The Almanac Singers. Pete’s credited with writing or co-writing some of the most beautiful modern folk songs, including “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” “If I Had a Hammer,” and “Turn, Turn, Turn.” He was one of the first people to record Dylan compositions with “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” “Paths of Victory,” and “Blowin’ in the Wind,” in 1963. But the connection doesn’t stop there. It was The Byrds’ 1965 album, Mr. Tambourine Man that included a hit version of “Bells of Rhymney,” as well as no less than four Dylan songs – the title track reaching number one on the charts.

14. Spanish is the Loving Tongue
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

A traditional song based on a poem written by cowboy poet Charles Badger Clark in 1907, this is one of the songs Dylan has returned to again and again throughout his career. This is Dylan’s first known taping of this song. He would release another performance for the first time in 1971 as the “B” side of the single, “Watching the River Flow.” He would record it again but not release it during the sessions for Blood on the Tracks.

15. Under Control
(Bob Dylan)

Throughout the basement tapes, Dylan plays with various versions of the blues. This song sketch, under two minutes, is an idea rooted in the heavy-duty riff played by Robbie Robertson. Dylan takes a distinct approach to many of the blues tracks here that harkens back to the kind of verbal cascade featured on originals like “Tell Me, Momma,” from 1966’s world tour. On this and “Dress it up, Better Have it All,” “My Woman She’s A-Leavin’” and “Silent Weekend,” all included in this collection, the lyrics do not fit into the usual cadence associated with the blues. It’s a writing style he would not return to and it is distinctive to the basement tapes.

16. Ol’ Roison the Beau
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

Dylan probably learned this traditional song back in his Village days from The Clancy Brothers. A popular drinking song, with a rousing chorus, “Roison the Beau”’s instantly familiar melody became the basis for many other songs and was used by no less than three American Presidents as the source for their campaign songs; the most famous being Abraham Lincoln’s “Lincoln and Liberty.”

17. I’m Guilty of Loving You
(Bob Dylan)

Many questions surround the purpose of some of the basement tapes. One answer that can be inferred from this fragment is that Garth Hudson’s tape recorder served as a kind of analog sketchpad for song ideas Dylan was working on. With a little more time and a phone call to Percy Sledge, this mid-tempo soul ballad might have yielded an interesting addition to the Dylan canon.

18. Cool Water
(Bob Nolan)

One of the many classic songs written by Sons of the Pioneers’ founding member, Bob Nolan. Back in the day of the singing cowboy, film stars like Gene Autry, Tex Ritter and Ken Maynard capitalized on America’s nostalgia for the West, acting in untold amounts of Hollywood films, strumming guitars while they warm themselves in front of campfires. The Sons of the Pioneers were certainly one of the most popular groups in this genre, appearing in over 87 films. Another founding member, Roy Rogers, went on to even more success than Bob Nolan, appearing in his own television show and eventually lending his name to a fast food outlet. Though less of a household name, many of Bob Nolan’s songs became standards, including this song, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” and “Way Out There.”

19. The Auld Triangle
(Brendan Francis Behan)

Written in 1954 by Irish poet, short story writer and playwright Brendon Behan, “The Auld Triangle” was composed to introduce his play, Quare Fellow, loosely based on Behan’s own prison experiences in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin. Try to dissect this track and you can discover what makes the basement tapes so special. Dylan is out in front, obviously very familiar with the song. The members of The Band pick things up as they go along, becoming more assured as the track progresses. But the magic that bounces off those walls makes it hard to tell who is playing what and even which instruments are being used. Is that a mandolin, harpsichord or electric piano? Who is singing those harmonies that magically appear? How do Garth’s circus swells on the organ somehow complement this Irish melody? That it all works is why the basement tapes have become legendary.

20. Po’ Lazarus
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

This traditional song had been in Dylan’s repertoire at least since 1961 when he performed it at the Riverside Church Folk Music Hootenanny, broadcast on WRVR-FM, New York. Dylan’s introduction from that day: “We’re going to go back to our regular folk program and bring you now a fellow who’s been around the New York area for about a year. He also performs in various coffeehouses. He plays the harmonica, he sings a lot of songs by Woody Guthrie, sings a lot of his own material. He comes from Gallup, New Mexico – Bobby Dylan.”

How things had changed in six short years.

21 & 22. I’m a Fool for You (Take 1 and Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

One of the many song sketches included in the basement tapes. Take 1 finds Dylan teaching the basic song to the band, while Take 2 has them working out the bridge. Where Take 3 might have led, there is no way to know. Dylan never returned to complete this song.

CD 2:

1. Johnny Todd
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

Many variants of this traditional song have been collected in Ireland, Scotland and England. Starting life as a children’s song with a more upbeat ending, the version here was taken from a sea shanty that had become a favorite during the folk revival in the 1950s. But the song’s life doesn’t end there. “Johnny Todd”’s melody was used as a theme for over the titles of the popular British TV show, Z Car, which started airing in 1962. The melody became the theme song for Liverpool’s Everton football club and is still played today at home games as the players enter the pitch.

2. Tupelo
(John Lee Hooker)

Bob Dylan and The Band shared R&B roots but that doesn’t mean they could remember the lyrics to every song they ever heard. Down in the basement, before the internet and fax machines, the folk process was in full effect. Dylan can’t recall the brutal and chilling words to John Lee Hooker’s pre-rap spoken-word reflection on the terrible Mississippi flood of 1927 and winds up combining “Tupelo” with the spelling riff used by Muddy Waters on “Mannish Boy,” to create a pastiche of the talking blues form.

Many things about Bob Dylan’s musical career are astonishing. In January of 1961 Dylan first arrives in New York City in one of the coldest winters in memory. A mere three months later, he gets his first major gig at Folk City, opening for none other than John Lee Hooker. The set list from that first date is lost, but it’s not hard to imagine the hush that would fall over Folk City when John Lee Hooker would tap out the rhythm with his foot and play the blues from deep in the Delta.

3. Kickin’ My Dog Around
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

Known frequently as “The Hound Dawg Song,” “Kickin’ My Dog Around” has a complicated history as a folk song. Some date the song back to Civil War times. Others credit it to African American minstrel show performer and songwriter James Bland, who is best known for “Carry Me Back to Old Virginny” and “Oh Dem Golden Slippers.” Dylan obviously has a vision for the song – you can hear him instructing the band members on background vocals. But the song eventually descends into a goofy call and response barnyard litany.

4 & 5. See You Later Allen Ginsberg (Take 1 and Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

The humor, word play and call and response fun of “Kickin’ My Dog Around” continues on this parody of rock and roll tropes, none more prominent than “See You Later, Alligator.” The song starts by referencing Dylan’s friend Allen Ginsberg and somehow morphs into a farewell for the improbably named crocogator. Allen Ginsberg and the beat poets are cited many times by Dylan as an influence both on his lyrical and performance style. Ginsberg and Dylan had become friends sometime in late 1963. Ginsberg can be seen on the back cover of Bringing it All Back Home and most famously in the Subterranean Homesick Blues cue card sequence that opens the movie Don’t Look Back.

6. Tiny Montgomery
(Bob Dylan)

Tiny Montgomery appears to be a mythical character along the lines of Quinn the Eskimo. Same set up – once Tiny or Quinn gets here, things are really gonna heat up. This song is full of disparate elements that jell into a greater whole; absurdist lyrics, Beach Boy harmonies, Garth’s baroque organ. Starting with “Motorpsycho Nitemare,” on Another Side of Bob Dylan, Dylan begins to populate his songs with a cast of seemingly random characters – some drawn from literature, some from history, and some from his fertile imagination. The basement tapes seem to have their own individual cast of characters. The year before T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound are fighting in the captain’s tower and a year later Skinny Moo and Half Track Frank are going be getting out of the tank.

7. Big Dog
(Bob Dylan)

A 20 second fragment, recorded during the same call and response sessions that produced “See You Later Allen Ginsberg” and “Kickin’ My Dog Around.” There’s probably more to the song that Dylan was working on – but either he never finished it or the band never decided to revisit it once the track broke down.

8. I’m Your Teenage Prayer
(Bob Dylan)

One thing the basement tapes provide is the kind of fly on the wall experience fans always crave. When Dylan and the band first started in the basement, they were just fooling around – a group that had played together for two years, testing the equipment, playing the blues – just seeing where the music would take them. “Teenage Prayer” is an off the cuff doo-wop sketch that revels in the camaraderie and good humor that a close-knit band enjoys when the tapes aren’t rolling and the cameras are off. The kind of Bob Dylan recording only revealed on the basement tapes.

9. Four Strong Winds
(Ian Tyson)

Surprisingly enough, this is the first selection on the basement tapes where Dylan records a song by one of his singer and songwriter contemporaries, in this case, Ian Tyson. Ian, along with his wife, Sylvia Fricker, formed the popular folk duo Ian and Sylvia. Originally from Canada, Ian and Sylvia began working together in 1959. By 1962, they had moved to New York and attracted the attention of folk music manager and impresario, Albert Grossman – the man who had put together Peter, Paul & Mary and would soon be managing Bob Dylan. This song comes from their second album released in 1963 on the Vanguard record label. The song became a major hit in Canada and ensured Ian and Sylvia’s ongoing success. It would become a top 10 hit in the U.S. for country singer Bobby Bare in 1964.

The band in the basement would go on to record three songs associated with Ian & Sylvia. This one, written by the duo, appeared on their fifth album released in 1966, Play One More. Although Ian & Sylvia originally made their name as coffeehouse performers, both were talented songwriters. Ian Tyson’s best known song may be “Someday Soon,” which Judy Collins charted with in 1969. Sylvia Fricker’s biggest chart success as a songwriter came with “You Were on My Mind,” a song the duo recorded in 1964 that became a smash hit for the California pop group, We Five, reaching number three on the charts in 1965.

12. Joshua Gone Barbados
(Eric Von Schmidt)

Dylan first met Eric Von Schmidt, the writer of this song, in Boston in the early ’60s. On Dylan’s first album, Dylan begins the song “Baby, Let Me Follow You Down” with the following spoken introduction: “I first heard this from Rick Von Schmidt. He lives in Cambridge. Rick’s a blues guitar player. I met him one day in the green pastures of Harvard University.”

But that wasn’t the only time Dylan spoke of his admiration for Von Schmidt. For the liner notes of Von Schmidt’s 1969 album, Who Knocked the Brains Out of the Sky, Dylan wrote the following: “Here is a man who can sing the bird off the wire and the rubber off the tire. He can separate the men from the boys and the note from the noise. The bridle from the saddle and the cow from the cattle. He can play the tune of the moon. The why of the sky and the commotion from the ocean. Yes he can.”

Besides playing the blues and performing in coffeehouses, Eric was a talented artist who created the poster for Bob Dylan’s tour with Joan Baez in 1964. Von Schmidt passed away in 2007. Anyone interested in the early Cambridge folk scene should search out his wonderful book, Baby, Let Me Follow You Down, published in 1979.

13. I’m in the Mood
(Bernard Besman, John Lee Hooker)

This is a riff on John Lee Hooker’s 1951 number one R&B hit, “I’m in the Mood.” Hooker’s version exemplifies the classic boogie rhythm that he popularized – juicing up a one chord Delta Blues with a heavy back beat. Here, it seems the only part remembered is the “I’m in the mood for love” phrase. Dylan adds some more chords and switches around the rhythm three-quarters of the way into the track. In the meantime, Robbie Robertson’s low voiced call and response seems to erase any hope of replicating the serious intention of the original. The track eventually dissolves into laughter.

14. Baby, Ain’t That Fine
(Dallas Frazier)

It’s obvious that Dylan was still listening to country radio during the 1960s. This song, written by Oklahoma singer and songwriter Dallas Frazier, was a country hit in 1966 for Melba Montgomery and Gene Pitney.

15. Rock, Salt and Nails
(Bruce Phillips)

This song was written by one of the most unique performers that the folk revival in the 1960s uncovered. U. Utah Phillips, or as he called himself, “The Golden Voice of the Great Southwest,” was a singer, a songwriter and a storyteller. He had been a soldier, bummed the rails in the ’50s, a union organizer, a state archivist, founder of a homeless shelter and homeless himself. He was a card-carrying member of the Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies). He ran for president as an anarchist in 1976, but of course, as an anarchist, he couldn’t vote for himself in his own election. Besides this song, he is best remembered for his album of railroad songs, Good Though! and the lovely composition, “Starlight on the Rails.”

16. A Fool Such as I
(William Marvin Trader)

Written by Bill Trader in 1952, this proved to be a country smash for Hank Snow the following year. Many covers would follow, including Elvis Presley’s number two hit in the U.S.A. (which also reached number 16 on the R&B charts that year). Dylan’s fondness for the song was such that he recorded it again during the Self Portrait /New Morning sessions in 1970. Columbia Records would release that recording on the controversial Dylan album in 1973.

Why controversial? Bob Dylan had left Columbia Records in 1973 to sign with Asylum Records. Columbia Records released an album called Dylan which collected a number of studio outtakes from his 1969 and 1970 sessions that comprised the albums Self Portrait and New Morning. Although Dylan has never spoken out on the topic, fans always assumed that the release of these substandard tracks was an act of retaliation on Columbia’s part. Regardless, the album reached number 17 and went gold.

17. Song for Canada
(Pete Gzowski, Ian Tyson)

A relatively obscure song from the catalog of Ian & Sylvia, penned by Ian Tyson and Canadian radio personality, Peter Gzowski. The song advocates Canadian unity and is often known by its repeated refrain, “One Single River.” It should be noted that the personnel of The Band playing here is entirely Canadian, as Levon Helm is missing from these sessions – lending an additional poignancy to this track.

18. People Get Ready
(Curtis L. Mayfield)

Curtis Mayfield was a songwriter whose work spanned more than two decades worth of important pop and soul music. Lead vocalist and songwriter for The Impressions, Curtis penned this original that would become The Impressions’ biggest chart hit in 1965. The sensitive reading given here forms the template for the harmony vocal approach that would be used to greater effect on several of the other basement tapes songs, most notably “I Shall Be Released.”

19. I Don’t Hurt Anymore
(Donald I Robertson, Walter E Rollins)

Dylan’s country roots and The Band’s roadhouse R&B blend perfectly on this duet harmony version of the Hank Snow hit from 1954. Written by Don Robertson, the song is from an era when the walls between the R&B and Country charts were a bit less segregated than the rest of America. Before Hank Snow’s version was off the C&W top 10, where it spent 20 weeks at number 1, Dinah Washington took the song to number 3 on the R&B charts.

20. Be Careful the Stones that You Throw
(Benjamin Lee Blankenship)

Hank Williams’ impact on rock and roll and country music cannot be underestimated. Hank first broke through in 1947 with his smash hit, “Move it on Over.” By 1950, he had already racked up nine Top 10 country chart hits, including “Love Sick Blues,” “I Just Don’t Like This Kind of Living,” and “Long Gone, Lonesome Blues.” However, Hank wanted to express a different side of his personality. He created an alter ego, Luke the Drifter, as a way to record religious themed music, often including lengthy moralistic recitations, without alienating his fans that loved his honky-tonking persona. This song, written by Hank Williams under the name Luke the Drifter, is given a poignant and accurate reading.

21. One Man’s Loss
(Bob Dylan)

Another song never finished by Dylan, but he’s got a great chorus: “One man’s loss always is another man’s gain, one man’s joy always is another man’s pain.”

22. Lock Your Door
(Bob Dylan)

Bootleggers released every scrap from the basement tapes they could get their hands on, even this 20 second fragment. When we decided to release the basement tapes, we made sure to include every track that had been in circulation, like this one, as well as over 30 tracks never heard before.

23. Baby, Won’t You be My Baby
(Bob Dylan)

Unfortunately, this R&B shuffle somehow escaped the net on the original 14 song basement tape song-publishing acetates. That’s a pity, because its melding of Blues, Country, and Memphis soul would have made it a natural for covers.

24. Try Me Little Girl
(Bob Dylan)

It’s hard to imagine that fragments like “One Man’s Loss” and “Lock Your Door” are all heading in some direction. But at this point during the recording, after a few more fragments and traditional folk songs, Dylan is about to unleash an onslaught of original songs.

25. I Can’t Make it Alone
(Bob Dylan)

More experimentation, this time with a descending bass line and a “b” section borrowing the chord changes from the Zombies’ 1964 hit, “She’s Not There.”

26. Don’t You Try Me Now
(Bob Dylan)

Another Dylan original – this time a rhythmic blues in the Fats Domino mold. Somewhere in the background a lap or pedal steel slides to imitate the Chicago Blues of Elmore James. When Garth starts playing the boogie-woogie beat on the organ halfway through the track, things really start to jell.

CD 3:

1. Young but Daily Growin’
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

This traditional song, which takes the form of a dialogue between a father and a daughter who is betrothed to a young boy, had long been a favorite of Dylan’s by the time he cut this version in the basement. Perhaps learned from the singing of Joan Baez, “Young but Daily Growin’” has many variants – the song is also known as “Lang A-Growin’,” “Bonny Boy,” and “The Trees They Do Grow High.” Unfortunately, the tape recorder wasn’t turned on until the very end of the first verse, omitting all but the last line of the mystical introductory stanza, “The trees they grow high/the leaves they do grow green/Many is the time my true love I’ve seen/Many an hour I have watched him all alone.”

2. Bonnie Ship the Diamond
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

A whaling song popularized by Ewan McColl and A.L. Lloyd. A.L. Lloyd commented about the song on the sleeve notes for his album, Leviathan!: “Sad events lie behind this most spirited of whaling songs. By the 1820s the relativity milder northern waters were fished clean, and whalemen were having to search in more distant corners of the Arctic, notably round the mighty and bitter Melville Bay in Northwest Greenland. In 1830, a fleet of fifty British whaleships reached the grounds in early June, a month before they expected. But the same winds that had helped them also crowded the Bay with ice floes and locked most of the fleet in, including the Diamond, the Resolution, the Rattler (not Battler) of Leigh (not Montrose), and the Eliza Swan. Twenty fine ships were crushed to splinters and many bold whalermen froze or drowned.”

3. Hills of Mexico
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

Probably learned from the singing of Woody Guthrie, another traditional song that had been in Dylan’s repertoire since 1961. Known alternatively as “Buffalo Skinners,” or “Trail of the Buffalo,” this cowboy ballad recounts the tale of an actual buffalo hunting expedition that occurred in the 1870s. It’s pretty obvious that the tape was rolling by accident during this one. Dylan tries to find the proper key – The Band, unfamiliar with the song, straggles in after a few minutes. After the song winds down, Dylan asks Garth not to waste tape on it. Dylan would return to the song in 1988, playing it live more than 20 times over the next 5 years.

4. Down on Me
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

This fragment, originating from an African-American spiritual, further fuels the mystery of the basement tapes. After they experiment with harmonies on the chorus, Dylan cryptically remarks, “That could be done.” Why they’re experimenting with traditional songs has never been explained.

5. One for the Road
(Bob Dylan)

Never completed, this down low bluesy ballad borrows the phrase “One for the road” from the Johnny Mercer/Harold Arlen classic, “One for My Baby (and One More for the Road).” This offers, perhaps, another window into Dylan’s working process – take a phrase, even something familiar, and turn it on its head; revamp the music and see where it leads you.

6. I’m Alright
(Bob Dylan)

Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum. One great thing about the ’60s was the juxtaposition of the musical styles on the top 40 charts. Soul, pop, R&R, R&B and country spilled out of the radio side by side. “I’m Alright,” another song-sketch never fully realized, owes a great debt in feel and attitude to Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions, whose melodic Chicago soul tracks like “Keep on Pushing,” “It’s All Right,” and “Move on Up” were getting heavy play on the radio.

7. Million Dollar Bash (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

In the 138 songs, covers, scraps and snippets recorded in that basement, this is one of the two times where Dylan picks up the harmonica. It’s an alternate take with more of a gentler, loping rhythm than the one included on the 1975 Basement Tapes release.

8. Million Dollar Bash (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

There’s a beautiful, idiosyncratic way the words are put together. But it’s the singing and playing that makes this track work so well. Dylan enunciates every word with relish and the joyous harmony chorus makes this instantly memorable.

9. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

Another bizarre tale filled with absurdist lyrics. Unlike “Quinn” and “Wheel’s on Fire,” “Yea! Heavy” never gained much traction as a publishing demo. Perhaps most recording artists were wary of singing the line, “Slap that drummer with a pie that smells.”

10. Yea! Heavy and a Bottle of Bread (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

This is the version of the song that wound up on the 1975 album The Basement Tapes. The similarity in tempo to Take 1 is a testament to how well Dylan and The Band worked together. In that era, before the prevalence of click tracks and drum machines, there is very little variance in the tempo between these two takes. Here’s where the spirit of Hank Williams lives on in Dylan’s music. Not in the lyrics, not in the sound, but in the fact that so much rhythm can exist without a drummer. One interesting lyrical change, and a slight one, is the substitution of the phrase “nose full of puss” for “nose full of blood” on Take 2. If Dylan was trying to make these songs more commercial, that tiny lyrical change probably was not a step in the right direction.

11. I’m Not There
(Bob Dylan)

Rock critic Greil Marcus was probably the first person to highlight this song. Anyone who thinks Bob Dylan is only about the lyrics never spent an hour or two trying to decode the mysteries captured in the DNA of the haunting vocal on this magical track. You can feel the pain and loss in this performance. What this might have sounded like with a finished lyric can only be imagined. This was first released on the soundtrack to the Todd Haynes experimental biopic of the same name.

12. Please, Mrs. Henry
(Bob Dylan)

One interesting thing about the basement tapes is that most of the original songs feature a verse/chorus structure, which is a format Dylan rarely used up to this point. “Like a Rolling Stone” proved to be a massively successful exception. But it truly was an exception, leaving Dylan as one of the rare songwriters of the rock era that could make a name for himself without sing-along choruses. But the sing-able, unforgettable chorus is a trademark of many songs on these recordings. Even when you are not sure why you are imploring Mrs. Henry, you are still singing along.

13. Crash on the Levee (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

The blues and its imagery run through much of Dylan’s music. “Crash on the Levee” echoes many of the great blues songs written about the cataclysmic Mississippi flood of 1927. Songs like “Rising High Water Blues” by Blind Lemon Jefferson, “High Water Blues” by Charley Patton and most famously, “When the Levee Breaks” by Memphis Minnie. It’s a theme that Bob Dylan’s returned to throughout his career; in 2001 with “High Water (for Charley Patton),” and in “The Levee’s Gonna Break” in 2006.

14. Crash on the Levee (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

This version of the song is the one that was used on the 1975 The Basement Tapes release. They decided to lower the key and the slow loping groove better matches the song’s Mississippi Delta roots.

15. Lo and Behold! (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

Listening, it becomes obvious how much these guys loved playing together. The group follows Dylan like a pack of musical bloodhounds and there is a spontaneous good humor and magic that they create together. At one point on this track, the steady rolling rhythm they create together threatens to collapse into laughter.

16. Lo and Behold! (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

The released version. A slight lyric change in the fourth verse ties up some loose ends. If you listen carefully, you can hear Richard Manuel and Rick Danko trying on different harmonies. Again, no drummer and all that rhythm – this time propelled by Richard Manuel’s piano.

17. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

As you listen to these raw tapes it becomes obvious that there is no single way in which Dylan approached writing a new song. Here, it’s apparent that the structure and choruses of the song have been completed, yet the lyrics for the verses are created off-the-cuff; perhaps by just glancing around the basement. The rhythmic feel and phrasing are already in place; just the words are temporary. Dylan’s free associating leads to some interesting and hilarious juxtapositions, like, “You bunch of basement noise,” “foreign bib,” “feed that buzzard, lay him on the rug.”

18. You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

Released on The Basement Tapes in 1975 with acoustic guitar overdubs and perhaps some sweetening on the vocals. Covered first by The Byrds on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Dylan thought enough of the song to record it again and release it on his Greatest Hits Volume II in 1971. On that version, he changed the lyrics one more time to reference fellow Greenwich Village coffeehouse performer turned rock star, Roger McGuinn, guiding vision behind The Byrds.

19. I Shall Be Released (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

This is the first time Dylan’s initial attempt at recording “I Shall Be Released” has ever been heard. For some reason the bootleggers never found this haunting version. It differs from Take 2, in that Richard Manuel has not yet decided on the falsetto harmony part that appears on the next take. Also, the lyrics are still a work in progress. Pay special attention to the beautiful and distinctive guitar part that Robbie Robertson seems to effortlessly unveil.

20. I Shall Be Released (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

One of the glaring omissions on the 1975 The Basement Tapes was this beautiful performance. Perhaps it was not included because by 1975, Dylan had already officially released a version of the song, recorded with Happy Traum, on 1971’s Greatest Hits Volume II. One of the basement tapes’ most covered songs; the falsetto part sung here by Richard Manuel provided the template for The Band’s rendition on Music from Big Pink.

21. This Wheel’s on Fire
(Bob Dylan, Rick Danko)

Written with Rick Danko, this was another song from the basement that hit cover version gold; first with Julie Driscoll and Brian Auger in 1968, and again with The Band on Music from Big Pink in 1969. In 1987, a recording by Siouxsie and the Banshees moved the song into the punk era. Julie Driscoll would reprise her hit version when the song became the theme song for the hit British TV show, Absolutely Fabulous in 1992.

22. Too Much of Nothing (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

This is the version that, along with drum overdubs, was released on 1975’s The Basement Tapes. It has an ascending chordal pattern that builds to a crescendo, which leads into the chorus. When the song was sent out as a demo, the chord structure on Take 2 was the chosen arrangement. Peter, Paul and Mary were the first to cover it. Their version peaked at number 35 on the Billboard charts in the fall of 1967.

23. Too Much of Nothing (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

This is the second take of the two versions recorded by Garth. This time through finds the song at a slower pace with a standard set of chord changes and the harmony chorus sung with more confidence.

CD 4:

1. Tears of Rage (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan, Richard Manuel)

Written with Richard Manuel, “Tears of Rage” was initially released on The Band’s first album, Music from Big Pink in 1968. A complex song both lyrically and melodically, it’s a testament to the open minded musical attitude of the ’60s that this song was covered by many different artists, including Ian & Sylvia, Jimi Hendrix, and Jerry Garcia.

2. Tears of Rage (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan, Richard Manuel)

This time they try switching up the rhythm to 6/8, but eventually realize that this is not the optimal rhythm and conclude the song after 2 verses.

3. Tears of Rage (Take 3)
(Bob Dylan, Richard Manuel)

This is where it all comes together. The 1975 Basement Tape version saw Richard’s plaintive harmony embellished with additional vocal overdubs on the chorus. One of the pleasures of hearing these tracks without the overdubs is to relish in the delicate harmony counterpoint that Richard sings during the verses and to feel the raw, if inexact, three part harmony that comes together on the choruses.

4. Quinn the Eskimo (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

If the purpose of the basement tapes was to record demos for cover recordings, “Quinn the Eskimo” was the first big success. Manfred Mann’s version reached the top spot on the UK charts and rose to number ten on the U.S. charts in 1968. Back in those days, before rock bands and songwriting singers dominated the pop charts, a single hit might spawn a multitude of cover versions. And so it was with “Quinn the Eskimo” (or “The Mighty Quinn”), with a mind-bending, genre-spanning collection of covers from the pop of Julie London, to the rock of The Hollies and the soul jazz of Ramsey Lewis. Dylan himself would return to the song several times on officially released recordings, the first time in 1970 with a live version on Self Portrait.

5. Quinn the Eskimo (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

Probably because of the multiple releases prior to 1975, the official CBS Records release of The Basement Tapes did not include a version of “Quinn the Eskimo.” Dylan recorded the song twice in the basement, Take 1 being faster, with the lyrics relatively rushed, Take 2 being more in the pocket. There was definitely an element of care being taken with the various arrangements of each of the songs that would be released as demos. On Take 1 we can hear Dylan say, “Waitin’ on you,” before Garth enters with a Bach-inspired organ part.

6. Open the Door, Homer (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

Bob Dylan and The Band drew on many influences, but their paths converged on a shared love of Rhythm & Blues. “Open the Door, Homer”’s musical roots stretch back to a black vaudeville routine that dates to at least the 1920s. No one can remember exactly who created the routine, but legendary vaudeville star Pigmeat Markham attributes it to Bob Russell. In 1946 R&B saxophonist Jack McVea put a melody to Dusty Fletcher’s version of the routine and hit the top of the R&B charts with “Open the Door, Richard.” Many cover versions followed.

In “Open the Door, Homer,” a repeated riff and some humorous word-play tip the hat to that old vaudeville routine. At the same time, the song has one of Dylan’s most memorable lines, “Take care of your memories … for you cannot relive them.”

7. Open the Door, Homer (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

Part of the rumors surrounding Dylan’s recording process was that the earliest versions of the songs were the ones that usually wound up on the records. This is true in a lot of instances. Sometimes there’s a magic that’s captured the first time when the tape reels are rolling. This is certainly true on “Open the Door, Homer.” They nailed it on the first take. This fragment’s attempt at a slower, more plaintive rhythm doesn’t really fit the nature of the lyrics.

8. Open the Door, Homer (Take 3)
(Bob Dylan)

The last time they record “Open the Door, Homer,” it’s obvious that they’ve moved past the song. The tempo is a bit slower so Dylan is taking more liberties with the vocal approach. The first time they hit the chorus, Dylan breaks up laughing. Throughout the basement tapes, that’s Dylan who is usually playing the 12-string guitar that provides the strong rhythmic focus for so many of these drummer-less songs.

9. Nothing Was Delivered (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

One of Garth Hudson’s most beautiful recordings, this was another one of the basement tape demos that musicians rushed to cover. It immediately found a home on The Byrds’ seminal country rock record, Sweetheart of the Rodeo. When this track was released on The Basement Tapes in 1975, little or nothing was added to it.

10. Nothing Was Delivered (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

Another example that the first time out is the charm. The second take still keeps that Fats Domino R&B groove that Richard Manuel pounds out in triplets on the piano, but the tempo is slower and the groove is off.

11. Nothing Was Delivered (Take 3)
(Bob Dylan)

Just recently surfaced, this recording of “Nothing Was Delivered” features the boys in the basement taking one more stab at the song, this time in straight 4/4 time. It quickly becomes obvious that the cadence of the lyrics doesn’t fit into the time signature and the approach is abandoned.

12. All American Boy
(Bobby Bare)

Written and recorded by Bobby Bare, “All American Boy” was a thinly veiled commentary on Elvis Presley’s meteoric rise to fame. It reached number 2 on the pop charts in 1959. Back down in the basement, no one seems to remember the words, and Dylan proves he’s one of music’s first freestylers with his endless cascade of free-associative rhymes. “Making a hot storm up over the ocean/he took himself a notion/he got some lotion and he put it on his guitar/he put it on him/next time you knew you could call him Jim.”

13. Sign on the Cross
(Bob Dylan)

Although unfinished, “Sign on the Cross” has found a vocal group of supporters among Dylan fans. It’s a country-gospel meditation that with its distinctive chorus, and its spoken-word recitation owes a debt to Hank Williams and his alter ego, Luke the Drifter. To hear Dylan and The Band tackle one of Hank’s Luke the Drifter originals, listen to “Be Careful of the Stones That You Throw” on Disc 2. And if you’d like to hear the original Luke the Drifter, search out “Pictures from Life’s Other Side” and “The Funeral.”

14. Odds and Ends (Take 1)
(Bob Dylan)

When you listen to the basement tapes its easy to forget that this was the exact same group that just a year earlier had played the British Isles to enormous controversy. They were loud, aggressive, forceful and bombastic. Fans expecting folk music came away short. Many booed, many walked out. “Odds and Ends” has a glimmer of the fire left over from that tour. A great rock and roll band with a great singer and a songwriter rockin’ the basement.

15. Odds and Ends (Take 2)
(Bob Dylan)

This is the version that was used for the 1975 The Basement Tapes release. Both versions are equally as good and it must have been difficult to decide which to include on the official release. You get the feeling Dylan and The Band could have done 20 takes, each peerless.

16. Get Your Rocks Off
(Bob Dylan)

Not only does Dylan know the blues, he understands the essence of delivering a good punch line. “Get your rocks off” was a popular phrase in the 1960s that had sexual connotations. The slow blues lulls you into thinking that this is gonna be one long sexual innuendo, and then he turns the phrase on its head with the classic misdirection and timing of a Catskill comedian.

17. Clothes Line Saga
(Bob Dylan)

In the summer of 1967 you couldn’t turn on the radio without hearing the crossover country hit “Ode to Billie Joe” by Bobbie Gentry. The song’s conversational style belies a tragic story that is referenced but never explained. Many saw “Clothes Line Saga” – a song whose conversational style belies very little – as a parody of that summer hit. Further fuel was added to that assumption when a copy of the safety tape was found, listing the title as “Answer to Ode.” That said, it still is unclear what the author’s original intention was.

18 and 19. Apple Suckling Tree (Take 1 and 2)
(Bob Dylan)

One thing that is so great about The Band is their sheer musicality, even though for most of the basement tape sessions, they were without one of their integral members, drummer and vocalist Levon Helm. Levon had left in 1965, disenchanted with the combative response to Dylan’s electric music. Without Levon, various members had to fill in, with a lot of the drumming chores falling to Richard Manuel. Robbie Robertson hit the skins as well and that’s probably him laying out the beat here. The second take is the one that winds up on the 1975 official release.

20. Don’t Ya Tell Henry
(Bob Dylan)

This version was considered unusable when the 1975 Basement Tapes were being put together. So, on that record, they started from scratch with Levon Helm singing the lead vocal. The version included here, although not pristine musically, has a certain rough-edged charm. Whoever picks up the trombone somehow manages to make up in enthusiasm for what is lacking in proficiency.

21. Bourbon Street
(Bob Dylan)

The second of the basement tapes to include that unknown trombone player, the first minute or so of “Bourbon Street” has existed for the last 20 years as a bootleg. For the first time, The Basement Tapes: Complete presents the entire 5 minute plus excursion to New Orleans. Obviously a song created on the fly, Dylan piles up various blues tropes to match the slow drag New Orleans funeral dirge. This picks up where “Don’t Ya Tell Henry” leaves off – ragged, sloppy, and lots of fun. When they get to the instrumental chorus and Dylan shouts an ironic, “Sounds marvelous!” he can’t keep from laughing.

CD 5:

1. Blowin’ in the Wind
(Bob Dylan)

Although The Hawks had already played with Dylan for almost two years by the time they reached the basement, they had never played this classic song live. Here they bring a rhythmic, gospel feel to a song Dylan would return to many times throughout his career. This is another performance which has never been in circulation before this release, and one of the few times were both Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson are afforded extensive solos.

2. One Too Many Mornings (Unreleased)
(Bob Dylan)

This track has never even been rumored to exist. It was found on an old tape unearthed by Dylan’s music publishing company. Richard Manuel lends his plaintive, singular voice to the first verse. Originally released on The Times They Are A-Changin’ as a folk ballad in 1964, the song was completely revamped for the ’66 tour, with a heavy backbeat and a suspenseful pause before Rick Danko would add harmony on the lyric “behind.” This arrangement is a mellower version of the distinctive interpretation as played on that combative tour.

3. A Satisfied Mind
(Red Hayes, Jack Rhodes)

Written by Red Hayes and Jack Rhodes, “A Satisfied Mind” is one of the most recorded country-gospel songs. It’s one of those melodies that sound so timeless, it’s easily mistaken for a traditional song. Dylan would eventually officially release a different performance of this song in 1980 on his Saved album.

4. It Ain’t Me Babe
(Bob Dylan)

First written and recorded by Bob Dylan for his 1964 Another Side of Bob Dylan album, this song was just one of several songs that were covered in the “folk-rock” idiom – a phrase Dylan never appreciated. Regardless, the Turtles scored a top 10 hit with it in 1965.

For the purposes of this collection, we are considering all the tracks recorded by Bob Dylan and The Band during 1967 as basement tapes, although by this time they were no longer in the basement of that big house known as Big Pink. Levon Helm and Rick Danko had moved to a house five miles away on Wittenberg Road, where Garth Hudson set up recording equipment again. The sound was not as stellar or distinctive as the tracks recorded at Big Pink. All of the songs from CD 5 are recorded on Wittenberg Road, with many of them, including this one, never having before been circulated.

5 and 6. Ain’t No More Cane (Takes 1 and 2)
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

Here’s another example of the many traditional folk songs that were played in the basement. This song was an early part of Dylan’s repertoire and has been bootlegged widely from recordings made in October 1962 at The Gaslight Café. A prison work song popular in the American South, it was collected by folklorist Alan Lomax and published in his seminal work, American Ballads and Folksongs. Both of the versions here were considered too rough for the official Basement Tapes release in 1975. That album has a completely different version of the song with Levon Helm on vocal and Garth Hudson providing atmospheric accordion.

7. My Woman She’s A-Leavin’
(Bob Dylan)

Another blues sketch, never fully realized, using the same kind of meter-defying lyrical cadence found on tracks like “Under Control.” Robbie Robertson’s restrained blues guitar playing is beautifully showcased here. As the ’60s rolled on, the idea of the “guitar god” took shape in the American rock music conversation. Guitarists like Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, and Jimi Hendrix codified the idea of a guitar player being someone who can solo, and in many cases, solo endlessly. Robbie is the reverse. He understands that knowing what NOT to play is as important as the notes you choose to include. His electric rhythm guitar playing here is a master class in blues accompaniment.

8. Santa-Fe
(Bob Dylan)

Another unfinished song, “Santa-Fe”’s buoyant exuberance was bottled up until 1991 when it appeared on the very first volume of The Bootleg Series.

9. Mary Lou, I Love You Too
(Bob Dylan)

This is another unfinished song from Wittenberg Road. Most of the finished songs that Dylan had been working on that year were recorded during the Big Pink sessions, with one major exception – the 12 songs that would appear on his album John Wesley Harding. Perhaps by the time he reaches Wittenberg Road, there’s very little gas left in the songwriting tank. “Mary Lou, I Love You Too” bears the distinction of being the only calypso-influenced track from that year.

10. Dress it Up, Better Have it All
(Bob Dylan)

A lot of the songs from the basement tapes were never finished. This is obviously a song-sketch waiting for lyrics to be added. In the meantime, what’s laid out is a skeleton for a rockabilly rave-up featuring three guitar solos by Robbie Robertson. When Dylan shouts, “sounds so sweet,” over the last solo, there’s no doubt that they are channeling the rock and roll of Elvis and Carl Perkins that they first heard on the radio back in the ’50s.

11. Minstrel Boy
(Bob Dylan)

This was one of the first songs from these sessions to be officially released when the live version recorded at Dylan’s 1969 concert at the Isle of Wight was issued on his Self Portrait album. Although the version here was released on last year’s Another Self Portrait, the charm of this song fragment and Levon Helm’s return to the vocal mix made it impossible not to include.

12. Silent Weekend
(Bob Dylan)

How many artists can do five blues songs and have them all sound so different? Although never completed, “Silent Weekend” is built around the title of the song, sung in harmony like many of the great Chicago blues tracks of the ’50s. Junior Wells’ “Little by Little” especially comes to mind. You can hear unexplored possibilities when Dylan belts out the phrase, “Lord, I wish Monday would come.”

13. What’s it Gonna Be When it Comes Up
(Bob Dylan)

A slow-drag late night blues, “What’s it Gonna Be” finds Dylan experimenting with the crooner voice he would use several years later on his Nashville Skyline album, recorded in early 1969. It’s obvious that there are no lyrics – more free-styling from Dylan finds him “sitting here in this one room Cadillac” in another bizarre mash-up of blues floaters.

14. 900 Miles
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

Down in the basement, with no access to songbooks or records and certainly way before the internet, if you wanted to sing a traditional song, the melody and lyrics depended on your memory. And that’s the way folk songs were played and sung for centuries before the advent of recording in the 1920s, oft times mutating into entirely new songs in the process. This steady rolling version of “900 Miles” has never been circulated before and is a charming example of how a faulty memory can create something new.

15. Wildwood Flower
(A.P. Carter)

Apparently, someone left an autoharp down at Wittenberg Road. One could only assume that the second someone picked it up, the first song that came to Bob Dylan’s mind was “Wildwood Flower,” a Carter Family classic. The song was written by A.P. Carter and adapted from traditional sources. The Carter Family, along with Jimmie Rodgers, were one of the two country music superstars that came out of Ralph Peer’s song hunting expedition to Bristol, Tennessee in 1927. It was Ralph who figured out that many of the Americans purchasing phonographs lived in rural areas, and would like to hear people who expressed their sentiments and sang in their voices. Although the Carter Family original recording did not have an autoharp on it, the autoharp and the Carter Family became synonymous by the ’60s.

16. One Kind Favor
(Traditional, Arranged by Bob Dylan)

This song, also known as “See That My Grave is Kept Clean,” is closely associated with Blind Lemon Jefferson, who is thought to be the composer. However, many different blues people recorded it both as “See That My Grave is Kept Clean” and “One Kind Favor,” including Bob Dylan, who first tried the song on his debut album in 1962.

Based on a spiritual, “When the Chariot Comes,” “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain” became closely associated with children’s music in the late 19th century. This is the last of the three songs being played on autoharp at Wittenberg Road.

18. It’s the Flight of the Bumble Bee
(Bob Dylan)

Richard Manuel starts off with the distinctive chromatic melody of the famous Rimsky-Korsakov classical masterpiece. Dylan takes it from there, free associating lyrics to a blues melody using his crooner voice again. This one’s a showcase for Richard Manuel’s gospel-blues piano playing.

19. Wild Wolf
(Bob Dylan)

A minor-key original, “Wild Wolf” joins the ranks of “Sign on the Cross” and “I’m Not There” as one of those basement tape recordings that hints at a much deeper and profound composition. This has never been bootlegged although Dylan fans picked up that the song had been copyrighted decades ago and have been searching for it ever since. Not the fully realized composition some hoped, but regardless, a moody, ethereal rumination that without clear delineation still seems to point to a vanishing species.

20. Goin’ to Acapulco
(Bob Dylan)

The release of “Goin’ to Acapulco” on 1975’s Basement Tapes was the first indication that there were more tapes from the basement than the 14 songs circulating among bootleggers. “Acapulco” had never been sent out for publishing purposes, so covers are few, although one does stand out – Jim James’ stirring, surreal, impassioned, on-camera reading from Todd Haynes’ 2007 film, I’m Not There. Oddly enough, the recording on this sounds so much better than many of the tracks from Wittenberg Road. Perhaps because this was a fully formed original, better mic-placement and recording technique were worked out before setting the reel-to-reel in motion.

21. Gonna Get You Now
(Bob Dylan)

A cool, funky original with a catchy chorus, although one wonders if the phrase “hurry to your grandma” would have found its way into a finished song. Enough can’t be said about Rick Danko’s bass playing. On this track he has almost nothing to work with, yet he instinctively picks out a funky bass line that propels the song forward.

22. If I Were a Carpenter
(James Timothy Hardin)

This Tim Hardin composition was a top 10 hit for Bobby Darin in 1966. Bobby Darin’s career was an unusual one. Starting out as a Brill Building songwriter in partnership with Don Kirshner, Darin originally broke through as a teen pop idol with his smash hit “Splish Splash.” But there was much more to Darin. He was an actor, dancer, songwriter and musical performer who listened to all types of music. After his teen idol phase, Darin recorded a number of adult pop albums with a swinging big band, yielding top ten hits with “Mack the Knife” and “Beyond the Sea.” Eventually, Darin became more interested in the folk music that was being played in the 1960s, especially songs that had political commentary. In 1969 he formed Direction Records to release music that had social commentary and wrote the beautiful “Simple Song of Freedom,” which was in turn covered by Tim Hardin.

23. Confidential
(Dorinda Morgan)

Written by Dorinda Morgan, “Confidential” was a top 20 hit for Sonny Knight in 1956 and eventually became a doo wop standard. The organ piano sound that opens the track hearkens back to Richard Manuel’s love of gospel music. He plays those big, open gospel chords while Hudson complements them on the organ. It’s a sound that permeated pop music at one point. Dylan first started using it on “Like a Rolling Stone” and it was a signature of The Band’s sound.

24 and 25. All You Have to Do is Dream (Takes 1 and 2)
(Bob Dylan)

Although the lyrics were never finished, there was obviously something appealing in the musical structure of this somewhat funky groove that had Dylan returning to it more than once. The first run-through is at a slower tempo and Richard Manuel strains to fill in the harmony on the last few times the chorus is repeated. The second take luxuriates in the collective musical joy in hitting and holding the final note of each verse – extending it when the music drops out – enjoying the three-part harmony so much that they create a coda repeating that exercise in breath control no less than five times.

CD 5
1. Blowin' in the Wind
2. One Too Many Mornings
3. A Satisfied Mind (written by Joe Hayes and Jack Rhodes)
4. It Ain't Me, Babe
5. Ain't No More Cane (Take 1) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
6. Ain't No More Cane (Take 2) (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
7. My Woman She's A-Leavin'
8. Santa-Fe
9. Mary Lou, I Love You Too
10. Dress it up, Better Have it All
11. Minstrel Boy
12. Silent Weekend
13. What's it Gonna be When it Comes Up
14. 900 Miles from My Home (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
15. Wildwood Flower (written by A.P. Carter)
16. One Kind Favor (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
17. She'll be Coming Round the Mountain (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
18. It's the Flight of the Bumblebee
19. Wild Wolf
20. Goin' to Acapulco
21. Gonna Get You Now
22. If I Were A Carpenter (written by James Timothy Hardin)
23. Confidential (written by Dorina Morgan)
24. All You Have to do is Dream (Take 1)
25. All You Have to do is Dream (Take 2)

CD 6
1. 2 Dollars and 99 Cents
2. Jelly Bean
3. Any Time
4. Down by the Station
5. Hallelujah, I've Just Been Moved (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
6. That's the Breaks
7. Pretty Mary
8. Will the Circle be Unbroken (written by A.P. Carter)
9. King of France
10. She's on My Mind Again
11. Goin' Down the Road Feeling Bad (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
12. On a Rainy Afternoon
13. I Can't Come in with a Broken Heart
14. Next Time on the Highway
15. Northern Claim
16. Love is Only Mine
17. Silhouettes (written by Bob Crewe and Frank C Slay Jr.)
18. Bring it on Home
19. Come All Ye Fair and Tender Ladies (Traditional, arranged by Bob Dylan)
20. The Spanish Song (Take 1)
21. The Spanish Song (Take 2)